DISCOVERY 



24l 



The whole problem, as will readilv be seen, is far 

 indeed from solution. But here too we have made 

 enormous strides in the last twenty vears, and instead 

 of the vague generalities which alone were possible 

 before, can see the main lines along which the 

 solution is to be sought. 



We can see the characters and instincts of the two 

 sexes as two divergent possibilities of human or 

 animal constitution, both present potentiallv in all 

 individuals of the race, and only waiting the right 

 soil to develop. From this point of view if is easv 

 to understand the fact that has struck so manv 

 obser\ers of human nature, that feminine characters 

 are often latent in men, masculine in women, and 

 in particular circumstances mav emerge, to their 

 owner's surprise and sometimes confusion. The fact 

 of intersexuality shows us that we may have to 

 revise not only our moral judgments but our legal 

 practice with regard to various abnormalities of sex 

 in human beings, and the knowledge we have 

 acquired of the sex-chromosomes is bound in the 

 not-too-distant future to lead to a considerable 

 measure of control over what until recently was one 

 of the greatest mysteries of life. 



(Concluded.) 



The Determination of Sex. L. Dc)NCAstek. (Cam- 

 bridge University Press, 12s.) 



Inbreeding and Outbreeding. E. M. East and 

 D. F. Jones. (Eippincott, los. 6d.) 



The Descent of Man. C. Darwin. (John Murrav, 

 9s.) 



The Phy.ucal Basis of Heredity. T. H. Morgan. 

 (Lippincott, I OS. 6d.) 



The Study of 



English Place Names : 



A New Scheme 



The study of English place-names has entered upon 

 a new phase with the institution of a co-operative 

 scheme for their in\-estigation by Professor A. Mawer, 

 of Liverpool University, under the aegis of the Britisti 

 .Academy. The essential features in Professor 

 Mawer's scheme are that an attempt will be made to 

 cover the whole of England, and that the evidence of 

 anthropology and archaeology, of history and 

 geography will be taken into account as well as the 

 linguistic element. An account of the work of the 

 Survey was given by Professor Mawer at a meeting 

 of the Royal Anthropological Institute held on June 

 27th. He said that from the earliest times, the 

 value of place-names as a possible source of historical 



knowledge had been recognised. Much early history 

 had frankly been invented from them, and historians 

 had speculated freely as to their meaning. More 

 recentlv, scholars like Kemble had seen the possi- 

 bilities latent in place-names ; but until Professor 

 Skeat first put Place-Name Study on its only secure 

 basis, viz., the study of the early forms of the names, 

 most of the work in this direction was only idle 

 speculation. Conducted on scientific lines, Place- 

 Xame Study could do much to throw fresh light on 

 the dark places in the history of our country and its 

 civilisation, where we had no documentary evidence or 

 only such as had long since been worn threadbare. 

 Place-names and archaeology were the only unworked 

 sources of evidence still remaining open to us, and 

 these studies should be conducted in close touch with 

 one another. It had graduallv come to be realised 

 by workers in the field that we needed co-operative 

 effort if ever we were to glean the true harvest of 

 knowledge from place-names. The reasons for this 

 were that (;') no safe inferences, either particular or 

 general, can be drawn with reference to the names of 

 any area except in the light of the full evidence for 

 at least the whole of England ; (/;) the range of 

 interests, historical, linguistic, topographical, and 

 archaeological, concerned in the problems of place- 

 names was so wide that they could not be dealt with 

 adequately by any single scholar. Accordingly a 

 scheme had been initiated under the patronage of the 

 British Academy for a Survey of English Place- 

 names, with a view not only to the interpretation of 

 the individual names, but also to the drawing from 

 them of all that wealth of historical and cultural lore 

 which was latent in them. During the Survey's first 

 six months of work a start has been made in several 

 counties ; many eminent scholars skilled in the various 

 aspects of the work are giving active help, and 

 close relationships have been established with the two 

 Public Offices most immediatelv concerned in the 

 matter, viz., the Ordnance Survey and the Public 

 Record Office. 



E. X. Fallaize. 



New Light on a 



Neglected Century of 



British Sculpture 



By Katharine A. Esdaiie 



English mediaeval sculpture has never lacked 

 admirers, but its post-Restoration successor is still 

 curiously neglected, and writer after writer has been 

 content to repeat the information contained in Wal- 

 pole's Anecdotes of Painting without reference to 



